


Dead Marine Pie

by Clara_Watson



Series: Pies, Diners, and Family [2]
Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:29:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23768515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clara_Watson/pseuds/Clara_Watson
Summary: It's 1988 and Leroy Jethro Gibbs has made an irreversible mistake: he's ruined his sister-in-law's pie.~An origin story for the pie mentioned in "Chelsea's Diner" <3~
Relationships: Jethro Gibbs/Shannon Gibbs
Series: Pies, Diners, and Family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712155
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Dead Marine Pie

According to legend: Leroy Jethro Gibbs was once a young man. And a young man that had a talent for pissing off the women in his life. Today, was one such day. All he wanted was to make a coffee, but he didn’t want to distract his sister-in-law, Chelsea. Her kitchen wasn’t big enough for most things, let alone the pie that she was baking with Shannon. There was only so much running after toddlers he could do without coffee.

It had been a good idea to start. He’d just go in, get hot water, and use the awful coffee Chelsea had in her kitchen. If she’d been at work that week she would have better coffee, but Chelsea had a stronger coffee addiction than he did. He’d just chuck it all in the cup and run out as fast as he could before he could be roped into peeling apples or doing taste tests.

“Leroy!” Shannon called before he’d even stepped a foot into the kitchen. He thought about backing out and rejoining Kelly and Cameron, but somehow his wife knew he was there. Sixth sense and all that. “Apple,” she said and threw it behind her. He thought about not catching it, but weighed the consequences of an angry wife in his head and caught it.

“What’y want me to do with it?” he said as he turned it around in his hand.

“Peel it,” Shannon said as she leant back and batted her eyelashes. “Pretty please, handsome husband.”

He chuckled and kissed her temple, reaching around her to get a knife. Chelsea faked gagged, but Gibbs knew she meant well. She just didn’t like people in her kitchen. Gibbs got that, just a bit, when Chelsea had aggressively told him that ‘her kitchen was his basement’ last New Years Eve. 

“What’s wrong Chels?” Gibbs teased, still wrapped around Shannon as he peeled the apple. Shannon kept leaning into him and giggling as she kneaded the dough. “Your marriage drying up?”

“Dead marine walking,” Chelsea said lowly. She was smiling, just a little, which meant he wasn’t fully submerged in hot water yet.

“Don’t wind her up,” Shannon whispered. “She’s in an interesting mood.”

“I want my pie finished, that’s what,” Chelsea squinted at the two of them. It was way too obvious that she was only trying to be mad. “What’re you guys building out there, anyway? I haven’t seen my family all day.”

“Pirate ship. Out of those boxes you had hanging around the back,” Gibbs responded. He carved the apple up and dropped the pieces onto the chopping board. “Are my duties done?”

“Absolutely not,” Shannon giggled. “There’s a whole bowl here.” 

“But coffee,” he whined as he picked up the next apple.

“You came in here out of love of your coffee, not the love of your wife?” Chelsea teased. 

He came in for coffee. He stayed for four pounds of apples and struggled to even get near the mugs, let alone the coffee. Gibbs heard Kelly and Cameron padding through the house before they’re laughter reached the kitchen. 

“Daddy, Daddy we’ve finished the pirate ship,” Kelly called. She stopped at the entrance to the kitchen, remembering the rules. Cameron, on the other hand, was a feisty five year old who couldn’t listen to rules if his life depended on it. 

It all happened at once. He could see it before it happened, he knew exactly what kind of disaster was mixed with an over excited child, kitchens, an open coffee canister and a yet to be completed pie. 

Chelsea was stirring raisins into the softened apple when Gibbs knew it was about to happen. Cameron had bumped into Chelsea, causing her to pour far more raisins in than she needed, and set off a chain reaction of trying to save the pie, and in the moment Chelsea knocked his arm and the coffee canister went flying.

Shannon caught Cameron before anything else could fall, scooping him up in her hands. The whole room was silent.

“You are so dead, Gibbs.” Chelsea growled. “Get your coffee, and go play pirates.”

***

Dinner was close to silent. But the pie, that was something different. Shannon hid her laugh behind her hand as Chelsea dropped the plates of pie in front of each person and pointedly looked at Gibbs.

“This pie, I like to call ‘Dead Marine Pie’. If you don’t like it, blame Uncle Jethro. He put some extra ingredients in it,” Chelsea forced a happy lilt to her voice as she took her seat once more.

Kelly stuck her nose in it and sniffed. “This smells like Daddy.”

“Maybe there’s a boat in it,” Cameron said. Gibbs ignored the child’s upturned nose. “Mummy?” Cameron asked.

“Yes, darling?”

“If me and Kelly don’t like it can we have some of Daddy’s ice-cream?”

“Yes,” Travis said immediately. 

The room was poised, no one willing to be the first person to eat a forkful of the pie. Kelly pulled hers apart then pushed it over to Gibbs.

“Daddy it has dead flies,” Kelly whispered. Gibbs chuckled and kissed her hair, taking the plate from her. 

“Can I propose something?” Travis said. He cut a forkful of pie and held it out before him. “We all just take a bite on the count of three.” The room all agreed, each piling their forks up. “One,” Travis started. “Two, three.” 

The pie flew to everyone’s mouths, every single person at the table preparing for an assault to their taste buds. But there was no disgusted, polite noises, around the table. Instead there was some content humming.

“I’ve had worse,” Shannon smiled.

“Daddy’s cooking?” Kelly asked.

Everyone laughed, but no one disagreed. They’d long since come to the conclusion that Gibbs made the best steaks known to man, but anything else he was useless at. While the kids ended up having icecream, everyone else was happy to finish the pie. Chelsea wrote down the recipe on the back of a birthday card she’d had lying around the house and wrote a single note:

‘Dead Marine Pie: a Recipe by THE Leroy Jethro Gibbs’.


End file.
